Acquisition and Stewardship Peer Program for Eastern Land Trusts

This is an exciting time to be working for a land trust! Yet with a wider range of strategic opportunities and increased responsibilities, it is more complicated than ever. You regularly confront complex decisions, often with no easy answer. Do you find yourself asking, “How do other land trusts handle this?” You don’t have to go it alone!

Join your land and conservation easement acquisition and stewardship peers across the eastern U.S. to expand your knowledge and skills and find a place for support — sharing your successes and seeking solutions to your challenges.

This is a peer learning experience especially for land trust professionals working on acquisition, stewardship and management of land and conservation easements. Beginning in April 2023 and running for 15 months, this opportunity will offer multiple ways to connect and learn with others, from training to network building to roundtable discussions focusing on various aspects of acquisition and stewardship.

The Land Trust Alliance, Gathering Waters: Wisconsin’s Alliance for Land Trusts and Prairie State Conservation Coalition are joining forces now for a new round of peer learning.

Learn more about the program components, eligibility and fees and apply below. The peer group began meeting in April 2023 but we are accepting new applications through November 30. Recordings of past sessions will be made available to new participants.

Apply now join to join your colleagues!

All levels of knowledge and experience are welcome. This is a peer-to-peer group and acknowledges that everyone has something to learn and something to teach. To be a part you need a spirit of adventure and commitment to active participation and meet these criteria:

• Your organization is a member of the Land Trust Alliance or the state and regional associations listed above.

• You are a paid or unpaid permanent staff member who works on conservation acquisition and/or stewardship (including management of fee lands and conservation easements) for at least 25 hours per week year-round.

• You have the support of your supervisor and executive director (or board chair if from an all-volunteer land trust).

• You work in one or more of these eligible states (comprising the Land Trust Alliance’s Eastern Division): AL, AR, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV or Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Gulf Coast of Texas.

• Expectations of Advanced Practitioners

  • Take turns facilitating quarterly Round Tables. The Alliance will handle logistics, the Advanced Practitioners would lead the discussions.

  • Partners will ask Advanced Practitioners for input on Learning Circle topics, Regional Calls, and impromptu meetings for urgent issues that arise.

  • As time allows, Advanced Practitioners may assist peer group members with specific questions (as time allows and optional).

  • As time allows, Advanced Practitioners may participate in small groups that meet on specific hot topics (ad hoc; as time allows; optional).

  • We expect average time commitment per month would be 3-4 hours, but will vary depending on each individual’s other time commitments

• What to expect of us

  • We will provide one professional development training for members of this Advanced Practitioners group.

  • We will arrange a platform for conversations specific to this group.

The registration fee is $300 per participant, which is due after your application is accepted.

We estimate the value of the program to be $2,000 per participant for this series of learning opportunities over a 15-month period. We are grateful to generous supporters for making it possible to keep the registration fee low, and to additionally enable us to offer scholarships.

We do not want cost to be a barrier for anyone. We are offering to waive the fee for any person or organization who needs assistance to enable full participation. The application will ask if you are applying for a comped registration (fee waiver). You will be asked to describe the potential benefits of participation; budgets will not be a part of scholarship eligibility for this program.

Note: except for the in-person meeting at Rally, any scheduled in-person events may have additional registration fees.

Having trouble with this form? You can send your application directly to webmaster@lta.org. Please include the above information in your email.